ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities detained 37 people for sharing “provocative” content on social media, the interior minister said Thursday, pressing ahead with a crackdown on dissenting voices that escalated with the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, a potential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested after a dawn raid on his residence on Wednesday as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links. Several other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.
The detention of a popular opposition leader and key Erdogan rival deepened concerns over democracy and sparked protests in Istanbul and elsewhere, despite a four-day ban on demonstrations in the city and road closures. On Thursday, hundreds of university students held a peaceful march in Istanbul to protest the detentions.
It also caused a shockwave in the financial market, triggering temporary halts in trading to prevent panic selling.
Critics see the crackdown as an effort by Erdogan to extend his more then two-decade rule following significant losses by the ruling party in local elections last year. Government officials reject claims that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that the courts operate independently.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities identified 261 social media accounts that shared provocative posts inciting public hatred or crime, including 62 that are run by people based abroad. At least 37 of the suspected owners were detained and efforts to detain other suspects were continuing, he wrote on the X social media platform.
Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary scheduled for Sunday. The party’s leader has said the primary will go ahead as planned.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed concern over the mayor’s detention, saying it was a “very, very bad sign” for Turkiye’s relations with the European Union.
Scholz said it was “depressing for democracy in Turkiye, but certainly also depressing for the relationship between Europe and Turkiye.”
“We can only call for this to end immediately and for opposition and government to stand in competition with each other, and not the opposition being brought to court,” he said.
Prosecutors accused Imamoglu of exploiting his position for financial gain, including the improper allocation of government contracts.
In a separate investigation, prosecutors also accuse Imamoglu of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, by allegedly forming an alliance with Kurdish groups for the Istanbul municipal elections. The PKK, behind a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye, is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and other allies.
It was not clear when authorities would begin questioning the mayor, who can be detained without charges for up to four days. Analysts say Imamoglu could be removed from office and replaced by a “trustee mayor” if he is formally charged with links to the PKK.
Before his detention, Imamoglu already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban. He is also appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkiye’s Supreme Electoral Council, a case that could result in a political ban.
This week, a university nullified his diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his 1990 transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus to its business faculty, a decision Imamoglu said he would challenge. The decision effectively bars him from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates.
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkiye’s largest city in March 2019, a historic blow to Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter-century. Erdogan’s party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities.
The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Imamoglu also won. The mayor retained his seat following local elections last year, during which his party made significant gains against Erdogan’s governing party.
Turkiye detains 37 over ‘provocative’ social media posts following arrest of Istanbul mayor
https://arab.news/g2huw
Turkiye detains 37 over ‘provocative’ social media posts following arrest of Istanbul mayor
- Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities identified 261 social media accounts that shared provocative posts inciting public hatred or crime
- Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate
Israeli hostage freed after 491 days asks: Where was the United Nations, the Red Cross, the world?
- He challenged the UN’s most powerful body: “If you stand for humanity prove it” by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza
- Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas militants eating stolen food from boxes marked with UN emblems
UNITED NATIONS: Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi, who was beaten, chained and starved while held for 491 days by Hamas, expressed his anger during an appearance at the UN Security Council on Thursday for having to suffer for so long and worry every day about being killed.
“Where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world?” Sharabi asked.
He challenged the UN’s most powerful body: “If you stand for humanity prove it” by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead.
The fate of the remaining hostages became more uncertain after Israel on Tuesday ended a six-week break in the fighting that had allowed for the return of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas militants eating stolen food from dozens of boxes marked with UN emblems while the hostages starved. They were given maybe a piece of pita and a sip of tea a day, and an occasional dry date, he said.
When he was released on Feb. 8, Sharabi said he weighed 44 kilos (about 97 pounds) — less than the weight of his youngest daughter, who was killed along with his wife and older daughter in Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with about 1,200 others. He was among 251 people taken hostage.
The United States in November vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza because it was not linked to an immediate release of the hostages.
The Palestinians and their supporters then went to the 193-member General Assembly, which adopted a resolution in December demanding a ceasefire and reiterating its demand for the release of the hostages. Unlike Security Council resolutions, though, those passed by the General Assembly are nonbinding.
The ceasefire that went into effect in January was shattered on Tuesday with surprise airstrikes on Gaza that killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the highest death tolls in the nearly 18-month war. Gaza’s Health Ministry said most victims were women and children.
Sharabi’s appearance before the council, the second by a freed hostage, followed an Israeli request last week for a meeting on the plight of the hostages.
Britain’s deputy ambassador James Kariuki called Sharabi’s suffering “beyond the imagination” and said “Hamas must be held accountable for their despicable actions.”
But Kariuki also said the UK condemns Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s “warning of the total destruction of Gaza.” Britain calls for the rapid resurgence of aid to Gaza, an investigation into allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, and an urgent return to the ceasefire deal, he said.
France’s new UN ambassador, Jérôme Bonnafont, expressed his country’s deepest condolences to Sharabi but also condemned the resumption of Israel’s bombing, saying it will not ensure the release of hostages, and demanded an end to Israel’s humanitarian blockade of Gaza.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the council, “Our hearts were filled with sorrow as we listened to the tragic story of Mr. Eli Sharabi,” adding “such brutality can have no justification.”
Polyansky criticized Israel’s leaders for not moving to phase 2 of the ceasefire deal, which calls for the release of all hostages and a permanent end to the fighting. He said it’s difficult to discuss the future when Israel’s military and political leaders appear to have made the choice in favor of war.
Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama, representing the Arab world on the council, called Sharabi a “representative of civil society,” and said “no civilian, irrespective of their background, should endure suffering.”
He then accused Israel of “cherry-picking” international law. He pointed to Israel’s ban on humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity entering Gaza since March 2, its killing of civilians, and the cutoff of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ access to over 9,500 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7.
After all council members spoke, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, sent “our condolences” to Sharabi over the killing of his loved ones and his prolonged captivity. He said Palestinians “understand this pain because we live it.”
Sharabi made no mention of Israeli actions, except to say that on the morning of Oct. 7, when he heard that militants were inside Kibbutz Be’eri where he lived, he reassured his wife not to worry: “The army will come, they always come.” That morning, they never came.
He told the council he came to speak for 24-year-old Alon Ohel, a fellow hostage whom he left behind in the tunnel, and all others, including his older brother, Yossi, who was killed but whose body remains in Gaza.
“Bring them all home. Now!” Sharabi said.
Tunisia quits African Union rights court
- The statement did not provide a reason for the government’s withdrawal from the Arusha-based court
- The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) denounced Tunisia’s withdrawal from the court as a decision “taken secretly“
TUNIS: Tunisia has said it is withdrawing from the human rights court of the African Union, as rights groups denounce another rollback on freedoms in the increasingly authoritarian North African nation.
Tunisia announced in a declaration circulated by activists since Thursday “the withdrawal of its recognition of the competence of the (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights) to accept cases from individuals and non-governmental organizations.”
The statement did not provide a reason for the government’s withdrawal from the Arusha-based court, which is tasked with enforcing the AU’s human rights charter.
The Tunisian foreign ministry did not respond to AFP’s requests to comment.
Tunisia had granted its citizens and NGOs the right to petition the court in 2017 after it emerged as the only surviving democracy from the Arab Spring of 2011.
Kais Saied was elected president in 2019 but in 2021 he staged a sweeping power grab and human rights groups have since raised concerns over a rollback on freedoms.
A number of his leading critics are currently behind bars.
Some are being prosecuted in an ongoing mass trial on charges of plotting against the state. Human rights groups have denounced the case as politically motivated.
In May 2023, the relatives of four detained opposition figures, including Ennahdha party leader Rached Ghannouchi, filed a case with the African court demanding their release.
In August, the court ruled against Tunisia, urging authorities to stop preventing the detainees from accessing their lawyers and doctors.
The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) denounced Tunisia’s withdrawal from the court as a decision “taken secretly.”
It said the move was “a dangerous step backwards and an attempt to withdraw from independent judicial institutions capable of fighting impunity and guaranteeing justice.”
Tunisian human rights group, the CRLDHT, said the withdrawal “nullifies a historic commitment” to the court and was “a shameful renunciation” of Tunisian pledges to protect human rights.
“This decision now deprives Tunisian citizens and human rights organizations of the ability to bring cases directly before the African court to challenge state violations,” it said.
Erdogan warns against protests over Istanbul mayor’s detention
- “We will not accept the disruption of public order. Just as we have never yielded to street terrorism, we will not surrender to vandalism,” Erdogan said
- The warning came after thousands of people protested for two days in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities
ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday that Turkiye would not tolerate street violence or public disruptions after the detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu prompted some of the biggest shows of civil disobedience in more than a decade.
“We will not accept the disruption of public order. Just as we have never yielded to street terrorism, we will not surrender to vandalism,” Erdogan, 71, told an audience in the capital Ankara.
The warning came after thousands of people protested for two days in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities, including at university campuses, leading to some clashes. Police used water cannon to disperse some crowds and have closed down streets.
More demonstrations are planned later on Friday and tensions could rise at the weekend when a court is expected to rule to formally arrest Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main political rival who leads him in some opinion polls.
An arrest could also accelerate a three-day selloff in Turkish assets that prompted the central bank to intervene to protect the currency.
Imamoglu, 54, was detained on Wednesday facing charges including graft and aiding a terrorist group. His Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition, condemned the move as politically motivated and urged supporters to demonstrate lawfully.
European leaders have called the detention a sign of democratic backsliding in Turkiye.
Erdogan said it was “a dead end” to take to the streets. “Pointing to the streets instead of the courts to defend theft, looting, illegality, and fraud is gravely irresponsible,” he said.
Authorities imposed a four-day ban after the detention and said that 53 people were detained during protests on Thursday.
CRACKDOWN AND PROTESTS
Turkiye has curbed civil disobedience since nationwide 2013 Gezi Park protests against the government which prompted a violent state crackdown seen as one of the main pivots toward autocracy under Erdogan’s 22-year reign.
The detention of Imamoglu, the two-term mayor of Turkiye’s largest city, caps a months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures that critics say is designed to undermine their electoral prospects.
The government denies the charges and says the judiciary is independent.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel has said Erdogan fears street protests, called the bans on demonstrations illegal, and has urged people to demonstrate peacefully in defense of their voting rights.
“Break down those barricades without harming the police, take to the streets and squares,” he said.
On Sunday, the CHP is set to announce Imamoglu as its presidential candidate for the next elections and the party has called for non-party members to vote to boost public resistance.
The next election is set for 2028 but, if Erdogan will be elegible to run again, parliament must schedule them earlier.
Seeking to avoid further legal hurdles, Ozel said the CHP would convene an extraordinary congress on April 6 to prevent authorities from appointing an outside trustee to the party. An Ankara prosecutor had opened an earlier probe into alleged irregularities around its last congress in 2023.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
Turkish financial markets reacted sharply to the detention with investors worries about eroding rule of law, with the lira and bonds tumbling and Istanbul shares down 8 percent on Friday.
The central bank raised its overnight rate unexpectedly and spent about $10 billion in foreign reserves on Wednesday to stabilize the currency, which plunged by 12 percent to an all-time low that day. Inflation was 39 percent last month.
In an interview with Reuters, Ozel said the CHP would resist any attempts to remove him and other party officials from the municipal offices where they have been staying since Imamoglu’s detention, and where protests are centered.
A government appointee could replace the mayor due to the charges against him, which include aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Imamoglu’s detention also followed the annulment of his university degree, which, if upheld, would block him from running for president under constitutional rules requiring candidates to hold a four-year degree.
Hamas studying US ‘bridge’ proposal on ceasefire as Israel escalates return to war
- A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond
- The official declined to provide details on the proposal, which he said was under consideration
CAIRO/DUBAI: Hamas said on Friday it was reviewing a US proposal to restore the Gaza ceasefire as Israel intensified military operations in the enclave to press the Palestinian militant group into freeing remaining Israeli hostages.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s “bridge” plan, presented last week, aims to extend the ceasefire into April, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to allow time for negotiations on a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military was ramping up air, land and sea strikes and would also evacuate civilians to the southern part of Gaza, speaking three days after Israel effectively abandoned the two-month-old truce.
Katz emphasized that Israel would continue its campaign until Hamas released further hostages and was totally defeated.
However, while Israel inflicted serious damage on Hamas with airstrikes this week that killed its Gaza government chief and other top officials, Palestinian and Israeli sources say Hamas has shown it can absorb major losses and still fight and govern.
Hamas said it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas, with the goal of reaching a deal on prisoner releases, ending the war, and securing a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond. The official declined to provide details on the proposal, which he said was under consideration.
Two Egyptian security sources said Egypt suggested putting a timeline into place for releasing the rest of the hostages alongside a deadline for a full Israeli pullout from Gaza with US guarantees.
The sources said the US had signalled initial approval of the plan while Hamas and Israel’s responses were expected later on Friday.
A temporary, first phase of the truce ended at the start of this month, but Israel and Hamas could not overcome differences over terms for launching the second phase. Hamas held up further hostage releases and Israeli military action then resumed.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel launched a new, all-out air and ground campaign against Hamas on Tuesday, after again halting all aid deliveries into the narrow coastal enclave.
Katz warned that Hamas would lose more territory the longer it kept refusing to free remaining hostages. Of the more than 250 originally seized in Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WORSENING
Tuesday’s first day of renewed Israeli airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old war.
On Friday, five people including three children were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a house in the Tuffah district of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, while two people — a woman and her daughter — were killed by tank fire in Abassan near Khan Younis in the south, according to Palestinian medics.
The United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, one of the largest providers of food aid in Gaza, warned on Friday it only had enough flour to distribute for the next six days.
“We can stretch that by giving people less, but we are talking days, not weeks,” UNRWA official Sam Rose told reporters in Geneva in an online briefing from central Gaza.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was once again alarming due to massive reductions in distribution of aid, UNRWA said.
“Six of 25 bakeries that the World Food Programme were supporting had to close down. There are larger crowds on streets outside bakeries,” Rose added.
“This is the longest period since the start of conflict in October 2023 that no supplies whatsoever have entered Gaza. The progress we made as an aid system over the last six weeks of the ceasefire is being reversed,” Rose added.
Israel’s blockage has led to a hike in prices of essential foods as well as of fuel, forcing many to ration their meals.
The war began after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with much of the densely populated territory reduced to rubble.
Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as its top court halts firing of security chief
- The explosion east of Gaza City killed a couple and their two children, plus two additional children who weren’t related to them
- “The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to Israel,” Katz said
JERUSALEM: A strike in Gaza killed several members of a family Friday as Israel ordered ground forces to advance deeper into the territory and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.
The explosion east of Gaza City killed a couple and their two children, plus two additional children who weren’t related to them but were in the same building, according to witnesses and a local hospital. The Israeli army said it struck a militant in a Gaza City building and took steps to minimize civilian harm. It was not immediately clear if the army was referring to the same strike.
The Israeli military said on social media it was planning to conduct raids in three neighborhoods west of Gaza City, and it warned Palestinians to evacuate the area in advance. The warning came shortly after the Israeli military said it intercepted two rockets fired from northern Gaza that set off sirens in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.
After retaking part of a corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south, Israeli troops moved Thursday toward the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah. The military said it had resumed enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that Israel would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity until the hostages are released by Hamas.”
“The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to Israel,” Katz said.
Court delays Netanyahu’s firing of Israeli security official
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivered a setback in his attempt to fire the country’s domestic security chief.
Hours after Netanyahu’s Cabinet unanimously approved the firing Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security service, the Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to his dismissal until an appeal can be heard no later than April 8. Netanyahu’s office had said Bar’s dismissal was effective April 10, but that it could come earlier if a replacement was found.
Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis to dismiss Bar.
A Shin Bet report into Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that prompted the war in Gaza acknowledged failures by the security agency. But it also said policies by Netanyahu’s government created the conditions for the attack.
Netanyahu has resisted calls for an official state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 attack and has tried to blame the failures on the army and security agencies.
A number of senior security officials, including a defense minister and army chief, have been fired or forced to step down. Bar had been one of the few senior security officials since the Oct. 7 attack to remain in office.
The decision to sack Bar deepens a power struggle focused largely over who bears responsibility for the 2023 Hamas attack. It also could set the stage for a crisis over the country’s division of powers.
Critics say the move is a power grab by the prime minister against an independent-minded civil servant, and tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of Bar, including outside Netanyahu’s residence on Friday.
Netanyahu sounded defiant in a social media post Friday evening, saying: “The State of Israel is a state of law and according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet.”
Hundreds dead in Gaza since ceasefire collapsed
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered a truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.
In the southern city of Rafah, officials said Israeli bombardments had forced residents into the open, deepening their suffering. Officials said they halted the building of shelter camps to protect employees.
Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians. It says military operations will escalate until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.
The ceasefire agreed to in mid-January was a three-phase plan meant to lead to a long-term cessation of hostilities, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the return of all hostages taken by Hamas.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces also withdrew to buffer zones inside Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to northern Gaza.
The ceasefire was supposed to last as long as talks on the second phase continued but Netanyahu balked at entering substantive negotiations.
Instead, he tried to force Hamas to accept a new ceasefire plan put forth by US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
That plan would have required Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key component of the first phase.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the original ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
The militant group has said it is willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Hamas accuses Netanyahu of stalling negotiations
Hamas said in a statement Friday that the firing of Shin Bet’s head shows a “deepening crisis of distrust” within Israel’s leadership. It also said Netanyahu used the ceasefire negotiations “to stall and buy time without any genuine intention of reaching tangible outcomes.”
Netanyahu said he had ordered the resumed strikes on Gaza this week because of Hamas’ rejection of the new proposal.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war at its height displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.
